Monday, May 24, 2010

Carlos Marmol continued his ridiculous run of dominance yesterday, striking out the side in a save against Texas. Marmol now has 44 strikeouts out of the bullpen, which bests Tyler Clippard's number by eleven. His 17.47 K/9 is also far and away the best in the majors. His success could be attributed to his slider. Marmol is one of the few pitchers that throws more breaking pitches than fastballs. So far, he has thrown 59% sliders in favor of 41% fastballs. Of the 108 sliders that have been swung at, 51 have been missed, which makes for a .472 whiff rate; that is well over the ~33% average rate for sliders. But the fastball, in more limited duty, has been just as impressive. With 52 swings, it has been whiffed at a rate of .346, also well over the pitch type average of ~16%.

Certainly, Marmol's biggest problem is his control. His fastball has been out of the zone more than 50% of the time, which is unusual; also, his 5.56 BB/9 is actually an improvement over 2009's ridiculous 7.91 mark. His ability to keep the ball out of play helps him in that regard, though, since he'll be more apt to strand the runners he lets reach.

Gameday PITCHf/x data is from MLB Advanced Media; it can be easily accessed via this tool.